Spaghetti Chair

Serkan Özkaya explores concepts and strategies such as originality, copying, multiplication and appropriation to problematise what art is and how it works. By playing with the criteria of authenticity, exhibition value and institutionalisation of the work, his practice nullifies canonical structures and often carries references to iconic works from art history. His chair, made in simple lines with sticks of spaghetti and aptly titled "Spaghetti Chair", is striking not only in terms of its unusual material but also due to its connotations of the idea of representation. The pioneering conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth’s "One and Three Chairs" (1965), which consists of a wooden chair, its photograph, and its dictionary definition, informs Özkaya’s work. Identifying spaghetti as a substance common and accessible to everyone, Özkaya also used this material and its different varieties to create a comprehensive project titled "One and Three Pastas" in collaboration with George L. Legendere, the author of the book "Pasta by Design". In this work, Özkaya exhibits different pasta varieties placed on shelves like works of art, together with their mathematical equations and perfect plastic versions produced in relation to these equations.